Mike you might get a kick out of a sidebar article I wrote 15 years ago for QST magazine.
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/am.html
Hit the first item in the "Articles" section.
Classic Rigs and Amplitude Modulation: Friendly, Nostalgic Ham Radio Partners. (896,270 bytes, PDF file)
QST February 1993, pp. 43
An introduction to current day AM activities within Amateur Radio.